Medical practitioners such as doctors, veterinarians, etc. often prescribe antibiotics for subjects (e.g., humans or animals) exhibiting symptoms that are attributable to a bacterial infection, but are not actually suffering from a bacterial infection. In such cases, the patient may exhibit symptoms that are attributable to non-bacterial causes such as viral infections, etc. for which antibiotics are not an effective remedy. Furthermore, prescribing antibiotics in such cases may contribute to the growing problem of over-prescribing of antibiotics, which enable certain bacterial strains to become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Additionally, when the patient is suffering from a bacterial infection, medical practitioners often prescribe an antibiotic that is not an effective treatment against a particular bacterial infection from which the patient is suffering and is thus not an effective remedy for the infection or treating the symptoms. Ineffective antibiotics and/or incompletion and non-compliance with prescribed treatment also contributes to increasing bacterial resistance
Many devices and assays are available that can determine whether or not the subject is suffering from a bacterial infection and, if so, to identify an antibiotic that is susceptible to the bacterial infection. However, such devices and assays cannot be used at the point of care because the complexity of the devices and assays require specialized training by laboratory personnel and expensive equipment employ the devices or perform the assays. Additionally, such assays include growing cultures, incubation, or procedures that are to be performed within a period of time (e.g., hours, days, etc.) that makes performing the assay at the point of care, such as during a typical visit to the doctor's office or veterinarian (e.g., usually within 30 to 60 minutes), impractical.